About

Barry K Rosen has been a theoretical computer scientist, a software engineer, and an Alzheimer’s caregiver. Along the way, he has written about 60 haiku poems, on diverse topics and in diverse moods. Some of those haiku will end some the posts in the MellowCurmudgeon blog, which will touch on many things in life and language, but only when Rosen thinks he has something to add to whatever has already been said. He will try to be humorous w/o being too flippant and serious w/o being too solemn.

Oscar Wilde made futility bearable by making it funny, as in the observation that there are two great tragedies in life (not getting what one wants and — getting it). Rosen made futility bearable by writing a few haiku about it. Far from being as gloomy as those haiku may suggest, he sees wisdom in Wilde’s observation that life is too important to be taken seriously.

Hello Mellow!
I am completely in favor of your aim to be “humorous w/o being too flippant and serious w/o being too solemn.” (I’m also an Oscar WIlde Fan.)
Also love your line about wheels turning slowly but giving a nice ride. 🙂

Thanks for your kind comment, which is a consolation as I nurse my worst head cold in years. But I keep the floor clean enough that after sneezing my brains out I can wipe them off and shove them back in w/o obvious ill effects.

Yes, Wilde had a rare ability to balance being funny and being serious.